Crystal Pines
by Blank Personality
Summary: An alternate universe wherein Dipper and Mabel are Gems. This is my take on what this crossover would entail. ((Now beta'd by the ever-patient Jump dimension!))
1. Costumes

"Dipper! Come out!"

"No!"

Mabel Aventure Pines grinned widely at the curtain from which her brother was hiding behind. She twirled in her new outfit, translucent skirt shimmering around her orange-clad upper legs.

"C'mon Dipper!"

"Mabel! You made me wear tights!"

"Yeah! So?"

"I hate tights!"

She giggled and sat down on her bed. Her ribbon hairpiece swayed as she rested her head on a palm, absentmindedly rubbing a finger over her neck and her gem. She let the silence reign for a few breaths, and then...

"Argh, fine!"

The curtain threatened to drag down its makshift hanger off the ceiling as it was violently jerked aside, revealing a grumpy-looking Dipper in its wake. He was hunched over, arms crossed, face drawn exasperatedly in a flushed grimace.

Mabel giddily clapped her hands, taking in her fine fashion handiwork. Dipper's jumpsuit was midnight blue, accented in silvers and whites, pants were _ju-ust_ long enough to be tucked into a pair of knee-length combat boots Mabel uncannily found of the similar color of navy. His palms and wrists were protectively covered by dark fingerless gloves that she prided herself on thinking of, that should protect his skin from palm to elbows. It complimented his pale skin, his blue eyes, and allowed ease of movement, which was the most important thing.

However good the designs look on paper though...

"Mabel, I look ridiculous." Dipper deadpanned.

"Oh, nonsense," she waved her hand, but Mabel's eyes were narrowed, the corners of her lips tilting slightly. "Hmm... Your noodle arms are even more pronounced now with short sleeves and no vest though..."

"Mabel!"

"Ohh! Wait!" she shot up, eyes lighting up in excitement. Literally. "I forgot! Since I have a _beautiful_ flowing skirt," she did a little pirouette to prove her point, "you should have a beautiful -"

"Stop."

"- _flowing_ "

She came back from the dresser table, holding up a long piece of shimmering translucent garment, much like the fabric of her skirt, but tinted blue.

"Cape!"

Mabel rushed ahead and fastened it around Dipper's shoulders despite his protests. The clasp at the end fitted perfectly to an almost-invisible strap across his chest, so that when Mabel slipped in the pin and deftly clicked it into place, a white metal crescent gleamed unmovingly underneath the moonstone's indifferent shine. Huffingly in satisfaction, Mabel stepped back and dragged Dipper over to stand in front of their full-body mirror.

"Perfect mirror images," she sighed, clasping her hands together and fluttering her eyelashes. White stars shone in her eyes.

Dipper laughed, pushing his sister to the side. But even he couldn't disagree that the thought of them fighting Corrupts in these did look cool. Okay, not just cool. Awesome. "Drama Queen."

"On three?" Mabel snorted, smoothing down her top. Her gem pulsed, glowing slightly.

Dipper didn't have to look in the mirror to know that his gem was doing the same. "Time to see how gunning _cool_ we'd look to our enemies."

They nodded at each other and gained a wolfish smile on their faces.

"Three."

From outside, one could see the triangular attic window light up, and two perfectly straight beams of transcending blue and orange (respectively) light shoot out side-by-side with lazer precision, never overlapping or interfering with the other.

Until it did, then a few seconds later a giant jet black hand punched through the glass. A feathery, childish laugh rattled the house.

"KIDS! GO BACK TO BED!"

Another lightshow passed.

"Sorry, Grunkle Stan."

"I LOVE FASHION!"

* * *

Don't have a beta reader. Anyone interested?


	2. Discovery

Pearl dug through the lime green recesses of Peridot's ship, biting down her gasps every time her fingers brush against something that sends millions of minuscule, mostly unusably vague information to her gem. Around her were chunks and pieces of the space pod, strewn about the floor in a circle around her legs.

It was about time that she took this thing apart. It had been sitting there, in front of the kitchen counter for quite some time now. Maybe later she could dump some of the pieces to Amethyst's room. She certainly wouldn't mind, and some parts labeled as interesting and potentially useful, Pearl could run by Garnet.

But for now, all she wanted to do was to get this blasted thing out of Steven's room.

Just as that thought passed her brain, she grabbed hold of a cord that immediately shocked her, shooting her wrist right against a tiny sticker-like track pad. The small discoloration lit up, and immediately images of other Peridot-like silhouettes floated behind Pearl's eyelids. A seamless chamber opened up beside her shoulder, size similar to a glove compartment in cars.

There was a smooth, milky stone inside.

Pearl's face lit up in interest. But before she could move a muscle to claim her finding, a smaller, chubbier palm wrapped around it and pulled it out of her field of vision.

"Steven!" she yelped. "Put that down right now!"

"Why?" the boy replied cheekily, eyes bright and innocently curious. He threw the stone up in the air and caught it deftly with one hand, smile widening. "Oops! C'mon, Pearl! Come and get it!"

"No! Steven!"

Steven tucked the rock close to his chest as he ran around the ship with Pearl close on his tail, laughing all throughout. They continued this a couple of rounds, just because Pearl was too afraid of accidentally making him drop the stone if she tackled him. It seemed like this was going to turn into an overly-long gag before a gloved hand lifted Steven into the air by the back of his shirt.

"Whoah! Haha!" he laughed, but then took a look at Garnet's amused yet condescending look, and groaned. "Fine," he sighed, and handed the smooth white stone over to Pearl's awaiting palm.

"Thank you," she said curtly. Pearl promptly turned away after that though, making a beeline straight to the temple door, much too engrossed in poking at the rock's surface to hear Steven's small sigh behind her.

"I was just trying to get her attention... She spends too much time indoors these days," he shakes his head, staring forlornly outside the window, where the crescent moon hung serenely in the sky amongst thousands of twinkling stars greeting him with their shine. Garnet could only pat his back a couple of times in assurance.

-CP-

Much later in the night finds Pearl in the partial dark, half-submerged in the waters of her thinking room with the sign outside her door reading " **DON'T DISTURB** ". Her eyes bulge in both concentration and lack of sleep as she very, very carefully guides the tip of a device she made out of a spare whisk and some jumper cables connecting to her gem, along the flattest part of the rock. It was supposed to simulate Peridot's finger, and for the past few ours Pearl had been cycling nonstop through all of Homeworld's one hundred and thirty-two alphabet characters. Twice each, through all three variations. None had worked so far.

Until now.

The stone opened up at the last stroke, thrusting solid rays of white into the darkened room like probing searchlights. Pearl grunted and jumped back from the fist-sized artifact just in case, taking cover beneath the tower of water that stood in the middle of the room. But nothing exploded. She relaxed her expression and warily peeked over the side of the liquid platform.

A two-dimensional holo-screen, similar to the ones they'd seen Peridot use as control panels, had been projected large into the room. And on it was a map.


	3. Practice

Dipper Adula Pines ran through the forest with his Sunstone sister by his side, weapons out and at the ready. They were perfectly in sync with each other, just like they had always been, traveling separately to avoid a clumsy misstep wasting their time, but close together as always.

To an outsider standing in the trees and out of the way, they would seem to be nothing but two beams of fluid light cutting through the twilight. The twins shots twirl around each other as if in a dance, but they, and their target, knew better.

For once, the kids traveled completely silent of all banter.

It was serious time.

A monstrous roar sounded through the trees, scaring a flock of eye-bats into the sky.

Mabel looked at her brother for further instructions, and was greeted with military sign language. Neither of them had any time to ponder how they themselves could make/understand what a piece sign and couple of finger loops meant (they each dismissed the other's knowledge to movies and books, respectively), before they simultaneously did what Dipper suggested and split up.

Grunting, growling, and now quite tired out of its rampage through the woods, the 'corrupt' gem knocked down a couple of trees before it patrolled around its newly-made clearing. It was cornered and trapped, chased down like a stupid animal, and now, it was angry. Angry and scared.

Dipper locked eyes with Mabel across the clearing, both perched on perfectly identical branches.

"HIYAAAA!"

They jumped and tackled the monster simultaneously. This backfired though when the twins hit each other mid-air and fell back groaning, gem weapons disintegrating into glittering sparks.

The owl-gorilla monster glowered down at them, its jet black fur spiking up in agitation. From its beak-maws came a roar loud enough to shake the earth itself.

Then the roar dissolved to laughter. The laughter of an old man, to be exact.

"I thought siblings are supposed to be good at all this, egh, 'working together' stuff, huh?" Grunkle Stan chortled, reverting back to his default form. The twins groaned again in tandem and got to their feet, sighing. Their new costumes, now dirtied with grass stains and smears of mud, shapeshifted into their normal clothes – uniformed attire as always for Dipper, and a green-haired troll sweater for Mabel. Their skin bled to a healthy peach color. Their hair darkened to brown. Grunkle Stan rolled his eyes at their matching downtrodden looks and sighed.

"Don't sweat it, kids. I'm sure you'll be able to get better, till you can get me easy in no time at all!" He planted both palms firmly on top of the siblings' heads, making them snort and giggle and reach up to flick his wrinkly hands off.

"I bet I can still beat Dipper though," Mabel snorted, to which her brother replied with a scoff and by flipping her hair over her face. Stan laughed heartily as the kids devolved from playfully kicking and slapping each other to full-out brawling in the grass in front of him.

"As if! I can so whoop your butt!"

But then the mirth of the moment faded. Grunkle Stan's face softened, chuckles tapering off. "Hehe! ...Huh," The old man stared after his family and gained a faraway look in his eyes. His lips twitched into a ghost of a wistful smile weathered by time and age. He murmured quietly, internally intent on grabbing onto this happy time – this ordinary, cheerful Summer day – as much as he could store in his memories –"In no time at all."


	4. Forest

Steven thought he heard a growl behind the trees and yelped, speeding up hurriedly. "W-Wait for me! Eegh... Why do gem pads have to be so far away from other people?" He grumbled.

"Where are we going, anyways...?" he huffed, struggling to keep up with Amethyst's vigor, and the other Gem's long strides. "You haven't told me why you woke me up out of bed so early!

"And I still think we should've left you in the temple," Pearl muttered worriedly.

"Well..." Amethyst exchanged glances with Garnet, then seemed to make up her mind.

She slowed her pace so that she was then walking at Steven's side, instead of in front of him. Steven's face leveled as he realised that what he was about to hear was probably important. "Listen Steven... We wanted it to be a surprise for you, but since we're close to our destination anyways, well, here goes," the purple gem cleared her throat, looking both nervous and excited at the same time. "Remember that stone-thing Pearl found from Peridot's ship? The one that looked like a pebble from the bottom of a river?" Steven nodded. "Well, turns out it's a map. And map to all the active gem pads on earth, which must be what Peridot planned on checking up on after she fixes the big one. Good thing she never succeeded that, huh?" Steven nodded. "All of the ones we know are active are kept active because we constantly monitor them to make sure nobody but us can zoom around." Steven nodded. "Well, we've never used, or even know about this one before." Steven started to nod, before he stopped mid-step. His eyes widened comically. Amethyst nodded proudly, just as excited as a kid going to the zoo. Maybe more. Her eyes shone as she blurted out the words, "We. Have found -"

"Other gems, Steven!" Pearl butted in, walking backwards, practically tearing her hair out in frustration. Drops of milk-colored sweat rolled down her face, curving around the shape of her grimacing jaw. "And we don't know who they are, o-or, how powerful they could be. For all we know, they could be other Homeworld gems!"

"Homeworld gems?" Steven asked, eyes sparkling.

"Homeworld gems," Garnet interjected calmly, crushing a bothering fly in her fist. Strangely though, when she released it to gravity, only pink glitter trickled out of her hand. Wonder why. "Or..."

Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl fell silent after that, each exchanging unsure looks and silently communicating. Steven continued the rest of the trek to civilization with a pout. He hated being left out.

Thankfully, right at that moment, a gigantic labradorian panther pounced on them, breaking the proverbial ice. Steven cried out in alarm when he saw it, but couldn't help but feel relieved at the distraction, somewhat, as he held his shield against its claws. Homeworld stuff was weird. But at least this, he knew how to deal with.


	5. Preparations

"Mabel! C'mon, it went this way!" Dipper shouted, running at full speed in pursuit of the gem monster they were pretty sure took a detour to the size-altering crystals, somewhere in the forest. He had foregone the safety of his weapon for speed, thoughts of how he would begin the soon-to-be new entry in the journal already fogging his head. As always.

His sister half-pouted as she easily kept up, even slowing herself down somewhat to remain behind her brother. It wasn't his fault – the sun shone high and mighty in the sky, as the day had barely passed morning. Mabel had her crossbow out and at the ready.

"Dipper, don't you think we should've waited for Grunkle Stan?" she shouted through the wind in her ears.

"Mabel, this is my chance to prove to him that I'm actually getting better at being a gem!" Dipper yelled back, risking a glance off his target to get eye contact. "Can't you please let me have that?"

A moment of silence followed, accompanied by a deadpan and an almost-stumble. Mabel stared incredulously, legs working on autopilot, dumbstruck at the puppy-eyed look her own twin was giving her. Now she knew half of how other people felt when they would do that, times two, to get what they wanted. The shock and humorous betrayal gave way as she internally reaffirmed the power twins had over people. Specifically, them over people.

Finally, she wrenched her gaze away, huffing. "I can't say no to that face," she sighed. "Fine. We've beaten gnomes, the Summerween Trickster, and Bill Cipher before. We can bubble one slightly big cat!"

Dipper crowed in excitement, pulling his sword out with a flourish. His hair whitened under his disappearing hat, his skin gained a bluish hue. He grabbed his sister's hand in happiness.

As if they'd done this a million times before, the twins started to glow brightly, until their forms had turned to nothing but pure light that started to come together, twirl in a diagonal dance, and merge -

A four-armed, four-eyed person, slightly taller than a full-grown adult, was formed, with a full circle gem of two complete halves glittering on their chest. They had jet-black skin and stark reddish-white hair that fell to their upper back in perpetually moving waves, dressed in a cross design made of shimmering, speckled material that could've easily been woven from the fabric of space and time itself, accented in complimenting neon oranges and blues. Their wide, bow-shaped mouth stretched to a happy grin at the harmony that they represented.

Eclipse ran in open-toed, lace boots, brandishing their rectangular glass shield, that they then threw under their feet and used like a hoverboard. In the light, the glass shifted colors, never settling on just one side of the spectrum.

The systemal fusion laughed, sounding doubly childish and doubly excitable. Two arms pumped the air.

"Imma come for you!"

-CP-

Introductions. I'm pretty sure the two groups of characters will be meeting next time.


	6. Glimpse

The Gems were ready to take down the gem creature. Pearl was just about to move in for the kill, Garnet holding the panther's rearing attacks back, Amethyst standing with her whip around its middle. Steven hung back with the remainder of his bag of Chaaaps, looking forward to his chance to try out bubbling again. It was going so well.

And then Pearl froze, spear inches from the purple monster's oil-like hide.

"Where's its gem?" she asked.

Garnet paused as well. Distracted, the panther managed a powerful swipe at her, knocking her back into the trees.

Amethyst cried in alarm, grunting as her grip started to slip. "Who cares where its gem is? We've got this! We don't need a weak spot - oof!"

The panther's jagged, crystal chain of a tail came around and hit Amethyst square in the gut, sending her flying. She landed a few ways away from Steven, who had dropped his bag of Chaaaps and was now looking pretty worried.

Amethyst rubbed her head, waving Steven's fussing about off. "Didn't," she corrected herself. "Didn't need a weak spot, we _had_ got this. Darn!"

"I'm sorry!" Pearl yelled, dodging and jumping the creature's attacks. She just managed to block a bite by jamming her spear between jaws before continuing. "I didn't want to accidentally crack its gem! I just - "

"Whoo hoo!"

A huge figure rolled out of the trees, tackling the monster head-on with a high, rather giggly battle cry piercing the air. "Kitty, kitty!" The newcomer crowed, rolling around laughing with the monster like they were playing.

Steven gasped. "A pet? Oh my garsh, did we try to subdue somebody's pet?" He yelled, "I'M SORRY! You two complement each other very well!"

Behind him, the rest of the Crystal Gems got back on their feet silently.

The figure looked up, having stopped on top of the creature, safely pinning it down. Steven was momentarily rendered speechless as two pairs of strikingly bright eyes met his, smiling. "Thanks!" they laughed, all the while in the process of maneuvering with impossible ease around their captive. "Not m'pet, but -"

"Look out!" Garnet called. Pearl and Amethyst had frozen, eyes wide, just before a razor-sharp claw -

"Whoah! Haha," the stranger dodged around the oncoming swipe, tussled for a few more minutes until they were able to lock the gem cat around its sinewy muzzle. "So, I suppose you're new around here, flip-flops and friends. Are you visiting?"

They raised both left arms together in the air, conjuring up a rectangular, curved shield that glowed in the setting sun. It casted beautiful streaks of orange on their dark grey-brown skin, then bringing it down with one sure, striking blow before Steven could answer.

"HIYAA!"

The panther yowled one last time as it shattered to a million faded sparks, throwing up a rhombus-shaped onyx up into the air. A midnight hand caught it deftly, cradling it to their flat chest. That was when Steven noticed the half-and-half gem, and gasped lightly, stars alighting in his eyes.

"Giant person," he whispered.

The aforementioned giant person hummed tunelessly, weaving their hand over the gem. A green bubble formed, bringing the former panther a good few inches above their palm before it imploded silently, teleporting to another location.

Steven clapped his hands together, shaking the stars out of his eyes. "That - was - awesome!"

The fusion stranger jumped, eyebrows raising. They seemed to have forgotten slightly about the Crystal Gems. "You think so?" they asked shyly, laughing.

The ground shivered. Steven tore his glance away from the stranger to see Amethyst practically jackhammering the ground with the balls of her feet.

"Forgive me for asking but..." Pearl cocked her head timidly. Her dainty eyebrows were furrowed upwards, her teeth over her lips, moving constantly as if she couldn't find the words to continue.

"Where was the gem?" Garnet interjected, almost too quickly. Pearl drew her hands close to her middle - a gesture that Steven had seen her do so much during the aftermath of The Sardonyx Debacle - and clamped her mouth shut. Amethyst had no input. Steven absentmindedly waved a hand in front of her face. It held an expression that was reminiscent of a deer caught in the headlights. Hm. Nothing.

"...Gem?" the non-threat cocked their head in confusion. Then two of their eyes, the blue pair, narrowed as the other, amber ones widened in surprise.

Their body turned to white light as they unfused, and two children of about Steven's age were thrown at the Crystal Gems' feet.

Steven took an involuntary step back, yelped suddenly as his sandals caught on a stray rock and tripped him onto his back. But before that, he caught glimpses of his newest potential friends.

Orange, and blue, of whom the latter slapped his forehead and groaned.

"What am I gonna put in the journal now?"


	7. Anamnesis (1)

anamnesis (n.) - late 16th century: from Greek _anamnēsis,_ 'remembrance'.

-CP-

To Amethyst, the sound of rumbling can mean so much.

It was a familiar sound for her. The same sound she would hear while crushing a big boulder to little, smaller boulders, and the same sound that warned her if a cliff was going to fall or not. Grinding, shaking, cracking and crackling.

It was the sound of rock. Of danger and safety, of home and prison.

But usually, she didn't hear rumbling when she wasn't the cause of it.

This was different, Amethyst could feel it. She stood up, shoulders brushing against the walls-slash-ceilings of her hole.

The twilight didn't provide much light for her to see with, even after she had stepped out and weak purple sunlight reached more of the valley. But the rumbling had been close, she knew.

"Hello...?" She called out. No one, and nothing answered her. Amethyst let out a breath. Good. She wasn't expecting anything anyways.

Until it happened again. The crunch of pebbles under a boot.

"Who's there?" She shouted, grabbing the handle of her whip and brandishing it in one fell swoop. Its tip licked at a nearby boulder, splitting it in half. "Show yourself!"

"Wait!" A doubling, dry voice yelped. Amethyst lowered her stance and waited with baited breath, eyes narrowing, wondering what the threat could be and if she'd have to fight to defend her home -

A blue hand shot up from behind a rock. Followed by an orange one, followed by a face with three mismatched eyes, two mouths and a small nose divided black and white. Around their neck, falling like a short gown or coat to their knees, was again, a black and white cloth of an undetermined pattern, billowing around the tall person's skinny frame.

They climbed over the rock, all four legs and four arms working together clumsily to scramble over roughly hardened dirt.

"Who-oh," Amethyst blurted out. "You're a mess, buddy."

The green eye in the middle rolled over to stare at her, managing to look baleful even with half of its eyelid missing. The amber and azure ones followed after a beat of delay.

"Than-nk, you, b-uagh-dee..." they uttered, appearing more confused the longer they spoke. They dropped to their back - most back, at least - legs, two freakishly long arms catching thrmselves onto the ground, the other two holding their malgamation of a head.

"Are you... Okay?" Amethyst asked, then caught herself and added, "Wait, Don't answer that. Just shake or nod your head. You know how to do that, lil' guy?"

"Not... Li'el," the thing, the creature, said shakily. But they moved their neck, once, twice in a nod. Their head wobbled dangerously, threatened to split apart.

Amethyst gasped, running forwards despite herself. "No! Okay, you don't have to do that either if you don't want to."

She stopped herself from putting her hands forward, eyes widening. Her head tilted up slowly, sporting a faint grimace. A whimper escaped her bow-shaped lips.

Up close, they were terrifying. Scraggly brown hair tumbled down their shoulders, exposing a bit of greyish scalp. However malformed their body was, she could see the powerful muscles underneath animalistic streaked skin. Their two mouths, one on their face and the other under their other jaw, grinned wolfishly at her. Or were they frowning?

Their light, long robes spread out in the cliff winds, billowing high into the air and well on either side. It gave the black translucent fabric life and motion - like lost spirits flocking behind this monster, peering around to take a peek at Amethyst.

"You're gem?" They looked down severely on her. "You're... Bad gem?"


	8. Anamnesis (2)

Amethyst looked around. Inactive diggers littered the place, making gem-shaped and gem-sized holes into the Earth. For the first time she noticed a whole clump of them were down, collapsed and smashed as if something... Or someone, Amethyst corrected herself... Had destroyed them upon instinct.

Amethyst took a deep breath and placed her hands on their smaller knees, calming anxious jitters that were starting up the longer she took to answer. They were impatient, she noted.

"Nah, buddy," she said finally. "I'm different. I'm good. Like you, right?"

She pushed down the hem of her dirt-colored shirt, exposing the twinkle of her gem.

Her eyes widened a bit as, in response, ghost-robes were pushed aside as well. A smile was blooming on her lips, thinking it was a joke, thinking that it was just following her actions. There would be nothing there. And maybe if they were a left-behind experiment, then they could be friends. She wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

The synthetic cloth was pushed aside, they leaned forward, exposing the space between their collarbones.

Amethyst was met with an abomination.

What looked to be two gems growing together, on each other, like overflowing paint turning a murky greenish color. The top of a gleaming spire-shaped white gem connected awkwardly, wrongly, with angular pointy shards sticking out like simplified light rays. Crystal spikes grew outwards from the meeting point, cramped and sandy. It was blue and orange, white and red, polar opposites stuck with each other, clinging, grasping, writhing, struggling, reaching and mashed -

Amethyst screamed and fell back, scrambling to get away.

"You okay?" They said. Their voice sounded much better now, still with that tin-like quality to it, but much more composed. "Buddy? You okay?"

"I'm fine!" Amethyst squeaked. 'Are you?'

"I'm fine, thank you," they said - corrected? - , like reciting a nursery phrase. Sitting there, looking down, three eyes wide and innocent, they looked so harmless. Like a newborn Earth gem, before they go through their first drills and lose that curious, what-am-I-going-to-be? look in their glow.

Amethyst suddenly felt a pang of guilt hit her like a boulder.

On the floor, looking up, she blinked her eyes hard and exhaled. Her hands still on their knobbly knees, she hung her head in shame and drew circles in the dirt with the tip of her shoe.

A small, orange-striped hand rested on her shoulder.

"You know what, buddy?" she said, brightening up. "You need a name. Umm."

She looked around. Inspiration. Recklessly, dangerously, Amethyst grab hold of the joints on their body and pulled herself up. She climbed and crawled onto their back; they didn't seem to mind. A few strands of off-white hair floated down gently as she clambered up onto her new friend's shoulders. They didn't seem to mind that either.

"You need a name," she repeated, eyes trained on the sunrise. "Have one?"

"No," the nameless one said, voice cracking.

"Well then... Hmm," the reddish sky broke and gave way to blues and whites, signaling the beginning of the day. Amethyst inhaled deeply and held it there, humming in thought.

"Buddy."

For a moment they stayed there, staring at the cliffs that surrounded them.

"Buddy," the newly named one said.

And that nightfall they would be Eve. In the next mornings, Dawn, which Amethyst had a good laugh about. Then it was Luna, Solaria, and Amazon, before they finally protested, months after, with a whine that they weren't a full woman. Then it was Rocky. Waddles. Then Tyrone.

Then, after a series of lucky events, it was Pines.

-CP-

The next part might be a bit late.


	9. Impressions

"So, you're a boy gem?" Steven gasped, pushing his face so close to Dipper's their noses almost touched. No, their noses did touch.

Dipper glared balefully at Mabel as she giggled behind a loose fist, having hastily retreated her hands to herself. "Yes," he sighed. "Yes I am."

"Whoah!" Steven exclaimed suddenly, startling him. "I've never seen another boy gem before! Did you chose to be this way, or… Are you actually a girl gem or… Hng, Pearl never explained this to me before!" he stopped, staring at his hands, before looking back at Dipper with a shy blush on his face. "Do gems even have boy and girl parts?"

Dipper and Mabel exchanged alarmed looks. "Yes!"

"Oh," the younger boy settled down. He sat down on the porch of the Mystery Shack then, legs crossed and a hand coming up absentmindedly to stroke Gomper's beard. He seemed quite content now with the twins' hasty answer.

"Um..." Mabel started. She had always dreamed of meeting other gems. Living in Gravity Falls all her life, the only other ones of her kind she had ever met were only Stan and Dipper, which were both… boys. She loved her family of course, but she had always wondered what other gems would look like. Would they be binary gendered like Grunkle Stan? Would they be like her (with her masculinity in gym) and Dipper (with his feminine wiles)? Would they be beautiful?

Well, the last one could be answered easily. Yes, Steven's guardians, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl had no need for any sort of makeovers, no doubt about it. Mabel pushed down the budding feeling of lighthearted jealousy and attempted to make some conversation.

"So," she singsung, rolling her eyes for more effect. Within the blink of an eye she had changed to her slumber party position as if the hard dirty floorboards underneath her was her bed. Chin on palm, both elbows inevitably banged against the wooden panels, but Mabel didn't mind. Her eyes shone with curiosity. "Tell us about yourself. Please. And especially about your family in there. Wait, no. I changed my mind - Just tell us about your family."

Steven hesitated, stealing a glance at where the rest of the Crystal Gems gathered around Pearl's holo-map, taken from the radar picture she had studied so carefully back at the temple. Though even though it was out, and he could clearly see it from where he was sitting, Steven doubted anything they were talking about had to do with the radar at all, since the proof of its accuracy were sitting in front of him right now. No, the Gems were talking about something they didn't want him to know about, or something they thought he didn't know about (whichever), and whatever it was, was… silencing Amethyst, making Pearl even more nervous than usual, and put a grim yet frazzled look on Garnet's face.

"Kids!" Grunkle Stan emerged from the back door of the house with a Pitt Cola in hand, startling all three of the children and scaring Gompers away bleating. Even though it was in the middle of business hours, he was dressed in his out-of-work attire, consisting of his boxers and a worn, stretched-out wifebeater. Accompanied by the fez, of course. "The floor of the fit shop needs sweeping. Whoah! New customers?"

Dipper rolled his eyes, face flushing in embarrassment, and Mabel giggled. Before Steven could even open his mouth to ask what the old man meant, he had been pulled up and a large wrinkly arm was around his shoulders. "Step right up, sonny!" Grunkle Stan hollered merrily, brandishing his eight-ball cane at the door frame (despite the obvious fact that this was the backdoor that lead to the living areas of the house). "We've got every oddity here! More in a single tour than you can even dream of, right here in front of you in the Mystery Shack! For an entrance fee of ten dollars a person. Twenty, if you got it."

"Actually, mister," Steven stuttered. "I don't have a lot of money on me at the moment. My moms are over there, see? You can ask them!" he chuckled nervously and slipped out from under Stan's grip.

But the old man hadn't seemed to even notice. He stood stock still, tilting his head up just so that the sunlight would bounce off the lenses of his glasses and conceal his eyes from any of the kids. Slowly, the twins' amused smiles faded as they realised that something was wrong.

"Hey, kid," Stan said suddenly, startling Steven. "You're new around here, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you've met these magnets for trouble, am I right?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Then go," he said quietly. Steven opened his mouth, salute still in place high on his brow, before taking the hearing equivalent of a double-take and fell silent.

"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper enquired.

Mabel continued, "What's wrong?"

"Sweetie, why don't you eh, 'hang out' with Steven for a bit, huh? DIpper, I'm putting you in charge," before any of them could react, Stan had crossed the porch and was now walking steadily over to the Crystal Gems, stony faced and serious. It was such a rare sight that neither of the Pines kids dared argue. Mabel took Steven's hand and lugged him off to the direction of the woods, after Dipper.


	10. Description

Mabel's - Sunstone's - gem was shaped in a perfect semicircle, the flat part of it facing down to resemble a setting (or rising) sun in the horizon, and resting comfortably just below her clavicle. It was sparkling and glittery, exploding in fiery reds and bright oranges and neon yellows. Its edges were smooth, its surface warm, its size just right for pulling a crossbow out of.

And Dipper's - Moonstone's - gem was, in contrast with its twin's bombastic color, pale and subtle, slightly iridescent, white and blue and purple and glimmering and storing a shortsword by magic. Shaped like a semicircle the same way, but with the flat part of it facing up and located just above where his heart would've been, if he were fully human.

But he wasn't. And neither was she. And neither was their guardian, or enemy. But that's for another story.

Gem weapons were hard to procure, yet for some reason both the twins felt more empowered after a summoning, rather than drained as most young in-training gems would be. This was to be expected, considering the history they, or at least their past-selves had with battles and wars, whether they were aware of this fact or not.

Speaking of weapons, theirs were still quite of a simple design. Dipper's shortsword was just that at the moment - a sharp blindingly white blade, a handle, triangular pommel and guard of differing shades of blues. Currently, nothing special has happened when training with Stan, but that could change, of course. Like Mabel; her crossbow once glowed and developed a 'stun' setting rather than impale, because she had been too queasy to even think about killing gnomes. Her reason-slash-excuse, even though neither Dipper nor anyone else of importance really asked, was that they were pretty humanoid for one of Gravity Fall's creatures. And shooting humanoid beings would give her the heebie-jeebies. Her crossbow, which was more of a slingshot with a trigger at the moment than anything else. Fiercely orange frame and endless yellow arrows, with pale red wires and gears doing the rest of the work.

Strictly speaking, the kids had a long way to go before they could serve as real value to the effort against Homeworld. Until then, further research will be postponed.

And also, their bodies change color when their gem sides are activated. This was another thing Bill felt he wanted to keep in mind.

-CP-

Sorry for a short one. Tomorrow there'll be two.


	11. Teamwork (1)

The first place the kids went back to was the forest. Dipper was adamant that they patrol around the perimeters at least one more time to ensure that no more gem monsters show up and start wrecking things up without supervision. Mabel promised Steven they would go to the town after. They had taken care of that Paranthium alright, but who knows when the next occurrence might be, and if the kids were all fusioned-out for now...

One of Steven's guardians - the purple one, he thought. Amethyst? - had pointed out that that should've meant that they should probably stay home and not go looking for trouble until after Eclipse was ready to be formed again, but what was the point? Eclipse was Dipper and Mabel, after all, and as long as they were together, Dipper was sure they were going to be fine -

Mabel stopped. Which meant that Steven stopped. Which meant Dipper bumping the journal onto Steven's back and hitting his nose on the top of the open spine.

"Oof!"

"Sorry 'bout that, Dip sauce. Maple syrup -"

"Ach, ach, ach, Sundae. Shush."

A deep growl rumbled the foliage in front of them. The kids each drew their weapons and lowered into a stance. Or, Dipper held his sword shakily in front of him in an imitation of a stance, Mabel kept alternating her crossbow between anything and everything that moved, and Steven was scared.

"You know," he whispered, laughing nervously. Rivulets of cold sweat flowed down his neck, chilling his goosebump-riddled skin to the bone. "I wonder what Connie's name could translate to in food speak. M-maybe we can sit around and think about it later..."

Neither twins asked the quartz gem where his weapon was, which he was grateful for. He guessed they were too busy activating their X-Ray Vision or something cool like that.

In actuality, if it had been any closer to night, Dipper would've been talking a lot more - asking questions about other gems, Steven's home town, his weapon and other identity-important questions. As it stood though, it was currently one P-M in the afternoon and the pounding Sun, made worse by Mabel's anxiety, seemed to be sapping Dipper's strength away like a long-distance leech. And he had tried to get Mabel to ask on his behalf but the answers to sate his curiosity was not worth the effort of playing charades with his lovable but rather exasperating sister.

"Nobody move!" Mabel yelled into the bushes. "Come out in a calm and orderly fashion, and we will not shoot!"

"Do they actually say that in Duck-tective?" Dipper asked, beads of sweat rolling heavily down his face.

Mabel shrugged back. "I'm experimenting."

"Uhh, guys?" Steven squeaked. The rustling leaves drew closer. And closer. The twins stopped talking outside of tensing up and letting out the occasional low whimpering of distress. They flanked Steven and raised their weapons.

Out jumped a white bunny rabbit.

It licked its paw and twitched its nose at them. Its raspberry-colored eyes blinked innocently, ears folding in on themselves. Tiny tusks jutted out from inside its small W-shaped mouth.

Mabel 'aww'-ed and happily dropped her weapon, letting it dematerialise before it reached the ground. Steven laughed. He rushed forwards, scooping the little animal in his warm chubby arms.

Dipper, meanwhile, kept his distance from the furry critter, even going as far to take a step back.

"Uh, guys? I think I've read something like this before..."

"Oh relax Dipper!" Mabel laughed. She was now with Steven tossing the bunny around like a basketball, back and forth, back and forth. For a split second, while the little thing was in the air, Dipper thought he saw it look at him. Then it was caught by his sister and squeezed for the life of it.


	12. Teamwork (2)

Steven laughed, taking out a plastic bag labeled 'Chaaaps!' In bright yellow letters. "Dipper, calm down. There's nothing wrong, see? See the chip? I'm feeding him the chip. He likes it!"

Dipper's skin color flashed from tan to pale blue in response. He opened his mouth, brows furrowed, ready to deliver some explanation involving statistics and accounts of the forest and their should-be knowledge to never trust it, before a deep, shaking BOOM shook the earth. The kids fell off their feet, landing none-too-gently on their backs.

"What was that?" Mabel said dumbly. The rabbit shook its nose in fear and leapt off to the forest undergrowth. It disappeared.

A moment passed in silence.

Dipper blinked -

A claw came down, matted and dirty grey, colliding violently with the rose-colored dome erecting itself hastily around and over them.

Steven grunted as the sabretoothed wolf-bunny thing swiped at his bubble and rammed its tusks at it, cracking the brittle force field almost immediately. Dipper exchanged glances with Mabel, who nodded at him, face set in her own brand of serious mode. Simultaneously, they rolled to a crouch on Steven's either side and pulled out their weapons. Their hair bled to metallic blonde and whitish blue, respectively. Their skin chroma-morphosed. Dipper's cape rolled once to waterfall itself evenly across his back, while Mabel's skirt flared around her feet like flames.

"Steven!" Dipper called out. "Get ready!"

The monster snarled, leapt off the bubble and started circling the kids, giving Steven a chance to regain his breath before it then pounced again. He yelled in alarm, repaired shield reinforcing itself.

"For what?" he replied, breathing heavily. Drops of sweat converged on his chin before dripping off.

"Wait for it... Wait for it..." Mabel tightened her grip on her crossbow. A white-hot rod like a miniature spear appeared between the guide, head spiked like a small supernova frozen in the time of its explosion. It glowed with heat from within.

Steven yelped and drew away from its searing warmth, which he could feel even with the distance between him and Mabel's hands. Unbeknownst to either him or Mabel, Dipper was watching from the corner of his eyes, and a small frown marred his face.

The monster finished off two short blows and growled at them, jumping off. Dipper took his chance.

"NOW!" He yelled. Steven dropped the shield.

"Wait! Dipper!"

Dipper rushed forwards, cutlass rearing back. He roared a battlecry as he ran past a panting Steven, who dropped onto his hands and knees after letting the bubble drop. Dipper ran as far as he could away from him and Mabel before the monster took more interest in him. It growled, long whiskers and even longer rabbit-like ears twitching in frustration. Mabel watched in growing horror as its body started to coil, a low growl shivering out of its slobbery snout between two long mammoth-like bottom teeth.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Steven looked up, just barely, enough to see Mabel's sunset-colored boots fly out of his field of vision. Fiery arrows flew through the corner of his eyes, and his ears picked up a low growl followed closely by a high-pitched squeal, then galloping footsteps as the monster ran. He saw a frayed corner of silvery blue cloth disintegrate into sparkles as it settled on the ground.

Then, silence. Stillness.

Chin pressed against the dirt, Steven rolled his eyes upwards to see as much as he could.

"C'mon, I'm fine, really..."

"Dipper, that was - you can't just - "

"Mabel?" Steven huffed, rolling over to his back, then sitting up and turning his head around. "Dipper, what's the matter -"

"Nothing! I-"

Steven walked over and crouched down next to the Mabel in genuine curiosity. He might've looked around once or twice to make sure there were no more surprise forest creatures leaping at them from the foliage again, but none of that mattered as soon as he laid eyes on Dipper's gem.


	13. Teamwork (3)

It was cracked. Not badly, not as drastic as when Amethyst started to fall apart and talking backwards and stuff, but more like when she first got it. Teeny, barely anything to worry about.

But Dipper's skin was already looking paler than usual. His eyes were zoning out, jaw hanging loose and filling up with saliva as if the part of his brain that swallows on instinct had stopped working. Usually, his blue-grey porcelain-like color tone reminded Steven of Pearl - pastel and graceful, like the gentle colors of the wind before it formed together into a destructive hurricane.

But now all it brought to mind was 'zombie'. Half dead. Faint. Not good.

"Oh, we need to fix this," Mabel gulped, eyes bulging and shiny. Her hands couldn't stop moving, even though all her fussing and probing was probably doing more harm than good. "Grunkle Stan! We need to get Grunkle Stan. He'd know what to do, right?"

She twisted her hands into the collar edge of Steven's tee and shook him roughly. "RIGHT?"

"Wait a minute. Calm down Mabel!" Steven gasped for breath, holding up an index finger. Mabel seemed to realise what she was doing and sheepishly dropped on onto his stomach. Her hands wringed together nervously, tangling into a tight, constricted ball. "Oof!"

"Sorry."

He sighed and climbed to his feet determinedly. "Mabel, I can help! I have," pause for dramatic effect, "healing powers."

A slightly awkward moment of silence, wherein Steven's hands were still up in the position he stopped in to try and illustrate his talent, and the other two were staring at him blankly.

"You do, do - you do, Steffs?" Dipper blurted suddenly. "Sorry, mean. I mean..."

Steven nodded enthusiastically. "I do! Here -" he stopped, hesitated. "Um, bit of a warning, this might be a little... Weird."

"How weird, we-weird how?" Dipper stuttered. His left eye scrunched closed, voice coming out strained as his teeth gritted in effort.

Rather than answering, Steven hastily swallowed back the lump of uncertainty down his throat, and licked his palm. He stared at his glob of spit and tried to not think about Lapis Lazuli.

He touched his hand to Dipper's gem and felt it mend.

"There," he smiled. Feeling eyes on him, Steven looked up to see both Dipper and Mabel staring at him with open mouths. "Wha -"

"THANK YOU!" she screeched, and sort of tackle-hugged him across the chest. "Oh literally-sweet-gummy-koala-gods THANK YOU! Steven, you're a life saver!"

"Wow," Dipper sat back on his haunches, dumbstruck. "Just - Wow."

"What?" he whined. "Doesn't your grand-uncle Stan just does the same thing?"

"Yeah, but he has to start up all of this science majiger-doo-hickey," Mabel twisted her fingers together to make her point. Her eyes were moist and starry, "and it takes up a lot of time. He doesn't just, you know."

"Lick and slap," Dipper laughed. He was looking at Steven with a weirdly fond expression though, gentle and relaxed. Steven got the impression he wasn't one to trust people easily. He gained an embarrassed flush when he realized he was one of the few that were included in that small circle.

"Well, whatever," he glanced at Mabel and averted his eyes then, hand coming to the back of his neck. "I-i-it's not special or anything. Let's just, go back, huh?"

"Definitely," she whooped. They all stood, Mabel and Dipper's battle clothes changing back with a flourish. Steven breathed a sigh of awe as he watched their skin turn back to normal human tan. As one, they smile at each other and turn their backs to the new clearing in the woods, walking towards the Mystery Shack and the safety of civilization once again.

Something had changed within their little group. An easier feeling of trust, maybe. A stronger understanding of each other's capabilities. Solid respect. All of the above, sure, and a little simple friendship.


	14. Court

The Mystery Shack was closed. Wendy and Soos had been sent home, unceremoniously. Soos moreso, with a shoe being thrown at him when he refused to leave without an explanation.

Wendy had dragged him out then.

Now, Stan sat at the breakfast table. The blinds had all been drawn, white translucent curtains hanging dead and limp from above the windows. Like reaching ghosts, they only move when somebody gets too close to them.

Ventilation airways had all been tightly sealed. Doors locked, all remotely triangular objects or images covered or turned over in some discreet way. Sigils carved into the wood long ago, deep in the corners of the walls, had been activated. Just in case. After all, a reunion after a hundred and thirty two years was nothing if not unpredictable.

But Stan made sure nobody would be listening in to this particular conversation.

"So, heh," Stan said gruffly. He cleared his throat, drops of sweat rolling down his face. "You found me, finally."

Garnet stepped forward. "We need them, Stan."

"No. Up-pup-pup," he shoved a hand at Garnet's face. "I know. I saw the news. And no."

Amethyst couldn't take it anymore. She roared, slamming her hands forward on the table like the cops in those soap operas Steven insisted on watching. "YOU!" she yelled, channeling a little bit of Purple Puma. "YOU CAN'T KEEP THEM FOR YOURSELF - YOU TOOK THEM - YOU LITTLE - AARRGH!"

She kicked the table and it soared, bottles of syrup and plates flying off as if abandoning ship. The various condiments landed on the ground, bounced a couple of times before settling itself on the dusty floorboards. Their caps popped open and regurgitated their sticky sweet contents. A few plates Pearl had not been able to save followed in a much louder, cracking fashion.

Garnet acted fast and grabbed a leg of the table before it could reach the ceiling. "Amethyst, control yourself! We do not want to weaken the construction."

Pearl made a face. The number of dirty plates she had managed to catch on the tip of her spear was set down gracefully in the sink.

Meanwhile, Stan sat in his chair, completely unfazed, making no move whatsoever to direct the attention from himself.

"They are not something that I 'keep', Amethyst," her jaw tightened at hearing her name, eyes narrowing. "I had a better reason for taking them with me than you do for keeping them with you," Stan said calmly. The other two gems in the room looked confused. Ah. She had not told them then. Yet they travel together?

"BUT YOU MADE THEM- you made them..." Amethyst faltered. Her face darkened, blotchy spots of indigo coloring her cheeks. She had to admit, despite her childish sense of possession, "You healed them."

Pearl's icy blue eyes widened. A scowl formed beneath Garnet's shades.

"What are you implying?"

"Amethyst, you knew Artemis and Apollo?"

"No!" the purple gem and, surprisingly, Stan growled in tandem. They blinked and looked at each other for a moment before their looks turned back to glares.

"You listen close, hear, you 'Crystal Gems'," Stan continued. His form flickered slightly, revealing metallic gold armour over his Mister Mistery outfit. "They are not Artemis, or Apollo. They're Sunny and Crescent, alright? Mabel, and Dipper. They're not -" Stan stopped himself, blood rushing loudly in his ears.

Pearl laughed, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face. "Don't be silly, Pyrite, they're obviously... Obviously -"

"Don't call me that," Stan said. Pearl inhaled sharply and fell silent. He looked at Garnet's shades for a bit, when the silence in the room reigned like a persistent humming sound that grew louder and louder until he spoke again. "You know what you did," he said, gravelly voice going lower than meant for human ears. Good thing they were aliens. "You know why I left. You know why I pretended to be dead for all these years. All ever asked was for you to leave me, and my kids alone, and you couldn't even do that?"

"They're not your kids!" Pearl blurted out.

Stan stood up, banging his hands on the now-bare table. Outside, he could hear the faint, muffled sound of the golf cart engine. "No," he said, shooting one last laser glare to each of the gems. "Not by blood, or by gem, or whatever you want to call it. But they are my family, and I'm not going to let you drag 'em off into some war they can barely remember! Got it?"

The last of the daggers from his eyes were directed at Amethyst, who shook in sorrow, shame and guilt.

Stan walked past them, unlocking the front door and stepping out onto the patio.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan!"

"You would not believe what Steven just did!"

"Wait, Stan!" Pearl pushed uncharacteristically harried past Garnet. She caught up to the old man, who had placed a carefully constructed mask of indifference over his face. "I just wanted to say... That I, we, I'm sorr-"

"Save it, Pearl. You had your chance," Stan waved his greeting as the kids all rushed past them inside. From the corner of his eyes Stan could see Amethyst storming off to god-knows-where out the window, and even Garnet had a hard time staying calm sitting across from the twins on the slightly off-set dining table. Only when he was sure his face was turned away did his expression darkened. "And you blew it."


	15. Sleepless (1)

Mabel pranced around the room, giggling as she threw around solid rainbow-colored things from a big jar labeled 'Industrial Sprinkles - Use in case of first-time sleepovers!'. They dusted Steven's hair, his sleeping bag, the twins' beds and the rest of the attic. "Sleepover!" She shrieked unnecessarily.

Dipper laughed along until Mabel tackled him off of the bed without warning. Caught off-guard, Steven let out a loud bark of laughter at his usually calm friend's expression of unabashed stupor but flopping his back beside them anyways.

"Whoo! We are never going to go to sleep!" He screamed, all three children falling into happy chuckles.

Fast forward to night time. Three thirty in the morning. Steven sat up with a gasp, sweat trickling down his back and seeping into his star-speckled nightshirt.

His took deep breaths to slow his heartbeat. His arms came back down to his sides. Steven sighed and slumped over his sheets.

To his left at eye-level was a leg, covered in cartoon band-aids all colorful and cheery. Mabel's leg, to be exact, which was dangling over the edge of her bed where she passed out at a quarter to two, and stayed ever since. Steven looked from around the room to the triangle-shaped window, then back to Mabel. Her gem twinkled cheekily in the darkness.

Steven stood as quietly as he could and pushed her form so that it rolled gently to rest on the middle of the bed instead. He brought her blanket to Mabel's chin and smiled crookedly at the glitter-sprinkled drool that spilled down her cheek. Briefly he wondered if he should be ready to call a doctor in the morning to do something about that pink plastic glitter. Didn't seem... Healthy.

He turned around, carefully stepping over his sheets and the remnants of the one unfortunately destructive game of Attic Stuff Mini Gold they played, and was about to check on Dipper when he realised that the bed across the room was empty.

"You don't sleep?" Steven grunted as he pulled himself over the last rung of the ladder. He took a moment to regain his breath and compose himself first before rolling over and crawling to where Dipper sat.

The roof was bathed in faintly blue twilight, the half-moon shining sure and bright over the entirety of Gravity Falls. For some reason, Steven was not surprised at the least to find a beach umbrella and a cooler up here. Everything was silent save for the sounds of the forest at night. Crickets and other insects. The wind mingling with each other along with the crisp flora around them.

"Sleep?" the slightly older boy brought the tip of a pen to his lips, legs dangling freely over the edge of the roof. On his lap was a thick, leather-bound book, the most fantasy-ish Steven had ever seen. It was exactly what he thought the ancient magic tomes in Connie's stories always looked like, down to the yellowed pages and gold-plated corners. "Nah, that's more of Mabel's deal."

Steven hassled himself with sitting next to Dipper, face upturned and inquisitive. The blue gem took a while to notice but when he did, his legs and mouth stilled and eyes drifted sideways to stare at the pink-clad boy. Dipper rose one eyebrow in question.

Seconds ticked by. Steven hadn't seemed to have gotten the message.

"What?" Dipper clarified.

"Oh, well. I just thought, ehem. This is usually the time when one of us - that would be you - would tell a thing about themselves that the other person didn't know before."

"Who told you that?"

"Ly-fe," Steven poked a bewildered Dipper on the nose. "Believe it."

"I don't," the latter frown-pouted, rubbing his already red nose. He snapped his book shut and put the pen behind his ear. "But okay. What do you want to know?"

Steven held his chin for a moment and looked around. What didn't he know about Dipper Pines?

Heck, what did he know about Dipper Pines? That he fights monsters and gets hurt looking for them? That he's a gem? That he reads a lot?

Aha! The half-gem opened his mouth, ready to deliver a meaningless opener question with the intention of lightening the mood. He had his finger up in the air, nose to the sky, the whole seven circles. He knew just what to ask.


	16. Sleepless (2)

"But," Dipper interjected at just the right moment. "After that, then I can ask you the same question you ask me."

The half-gem paused, finger folding down. Steven's thumb rubbed his non-existent stubble in thought, mouth quirking as an imaginary Sherlock pipe was stuck in it. "Ah, so you wanna play serious, eh?" Dipper nodded curtly. "I can do that. Well then. Um... Oh! What's your real name?"

Leaf green eyes bugged out. "What? No! You can't ask that!"

"Why not? I thought there were no rules?"

"Yeah, but not..." The blue gem's cheeks flushed, almost glowing in the nighttime air. "That."

"Oh c'mon!" Steven laughed, pushing at Dipper's shoulder and making him sway dangerously over the side. "What could be so bad?"

In response, he only grumbled under his breath and crossed his arms unconsciously.

"Dipper," the chubbier boy probed.

"Argh! Fine," the now-heavily blushing gem groaned.

Steven took a moment to celebrate with a fist pump and a hissed 'yesss!'.

"Ihavefive," mumbled Dipper.

"What?"

"Urgh... I have five names, alright?" Dipper threw his hands up in the air. He fell back to lie on his back, wide eyes staring at the stars. "And technically, only 'Dipper' is a nickname, and one of the other ones are..." he cleared his throat, grumbling inaudibly, "so three real names, whoo-hoo."

Steven blinked. His body had been twisted to follow his apparently multi-named friend's movements, but now he twisted it back to spare a glance at the midnight sky. "Okay, so... What are they?"

"Ah geez. Well, Magnus," Dipper conceded. He lay spread eagle on his back, refusing to look at anything else than the stars. "Magnus Adula Pines."

Steven made a noise of encouragement. "That's nice! You have a middle name! Usually most middle names I've heard is, like 'Always' or 'Danger', though it seems to be pretty common from what I'm seen…or," he made a face, both fond and embarrassed, "'Cutiepie'. Yours is… an actual name."

He tilted his head to look at his friend, and ducked it when he realised that Dipper's left eyebrow was raised, patiently waiting for him to conclude his point.

"It's pretty," he finished lamely.

Dipper smiled and nodded, "Moonstone."

"Of course."

"Crescent."

At this one, the younger gem paused. A small serene smile graced his chubby features. "That's a nice name."

"And... " Dipper hollowed his cheeks, put his hands behind his head and ruffled his for once hatless ash-brown hair a bit. He took a breath and winced as he sighed the name out loud, "Artemis."

The trees underneath them shushed any more words from being uttered. Their dark leaves rustled noisily like chatter in a crowd, and a few was even spotted turning over the undergrowth. Steven rubbed his arms together as goosebumps rose along his skin, the high Oregon winds getting to him.

"And Dipper," the pink-clad quartz gem said suddenly, out of the blue.

"What?"

"Your name," he said, wobbling to kneel beside his friend. He took Dipper by the shoulders and shook him lightly, smiling widely with a light in his eyes as if he'd just figured out the biggest problem in the universe. "It's Dipper too. And 'Dipper' is yours. No one else's."

A star shot through the midnight sky. Steven yawned widely and settled on his side with Dipper's jacket acting as a pillow. "Wake me when you're going down' he said, eyes already closed. Five minutes later, he was asleep.

Dipper set down his can of Pitt Cola and took his journal back up again, ignoring the frigid sting of the gold metal corners and spine on his skin. He opened the page he had been working on, where a hasty sketch of Steven's face and smaller doodles of his apparent guardians greeted him in ink. Then he flipped back, to one of the very first in the third journal.

The entry there was just that - an entry. There was no picture of monsters, no rushed accounts of magic or hastily thought-of equations clogging the corners. To anyone else, on this page, it looked just like an ordinary journal of a mysterious man.

And it lasted for one huge wall of text, spanning one and a half pages. Dipper had read the words there again and again, but tonight only the last line he could not bear to look away from.

His upturned halfmoon gem gleamed in the midnight light.

"No one else's."


	17. Olden

Dust motes floated through the air languidly, never in certain patterns but always moving, twirling around each other as if in a hypnotic dance. Even though there was a big, translucent, partially covered window in front of the desk, it had been long since covered up; a cluttered corkboard, haphazard sticky notes and blurry pictures were tacked up to the glass, held the sienna afternoon light back and as a result, darkness reigned supreme in the study room. The vents were silent. There was no movement whatsoever. All was still.

The perfect place to take a nap.

\- A fact that Pyrite hadn't hesitated at all on taking advantage of. He laid his head across the desk, slumped and snoring, glasses nearly slipping clean off his face to slope to the side of his folded arms. The upturned collars of his favourite trench coat partially obscured his relaxed and serene face. The hand where his gem resided, just under his knuckles, twitched slightly before being tucked closer to his warm chest. Breathing calm, heartbeat slowed, the ex-rebel was sleeping as soundly as a baby.

Lightning-fast footsteps pounded the ceiling, getting closer, and closer, then thundering down the stairs like a bull had slipped on the top step. And the door opened with a loud BANG –

"RISE AND SHINE, BROTHER O' MINE!"

Onyx knuckled his recently-awake brother across the head as he bounded off the bottom stairs.

The momentum almost propelling his head right into his newly made plate of grub face-first, Pyrite yelped and groaned as his brain finally registered the smidge of scrambled eggs that had hooked onto the tip of his nose. Bacon grease slickened the bridge of his glasses. Already, the collecting steam was condensing on the tops of the lenses and blurring everything together.

"Aw, did I wake you?" Onyx cooed sarcastically, flipping on a nearby desk lamp. The force of his shoulder pats almost knocked Pyrite's face into the food, again. "Gotta eat breakfast some time, right?"

"We're Gems, Lee," he replied tiredly, the 'Duh' remaining unspoken between them. "We don't need to eat."

"Uh can it, Poindexter. Now we do." A fork shoveled a lump of yellow mush right to the doorstep of his stubbornly closed lips. "C'mon, Fordy! If we gotta do this, we gotta practice, alright?"

"No! Lee!" Pyrite slapped at the offending appendage. He made a mistake parting his lips to protest though, and had to resist the urge to gag as a heavy mash of ( _shudder_ ) 'food' was shoved into his mouth. "Gah! Blegh! Onyx!"

The aforementioned troublemaker slapped his knee and jumped around the cramped study, giving a loud hoot, "One up on the polydactyl!"

Six-fingered hands ripped the fork away immediately, but unfortunately neglected to realise that by doing so, he had left the load of eggs and sausages in his mouth with no way to get them out except to spit. And since Pyrite was far too civil...

"How is it?" Onyx snickered, arms crossed, face so smug.

The brass-yellow gem made a face and a big show of gulping and gagging. "Oh no... Lee... I think... I can see the light..." he retched, pretending to swoon over the table.

"Yeah, yeah," snorted Onyx, gathering up his cooking in one hand, then using it to gesture pretentiously around the place. "Give the man an Oscar. I hope you know that I regret having a movie night with you, Sixer. But, at least the humans can't deny that I have a great sense of... Uh, what's they call... 'flava'."

"Flavour, what flavour?" Pyrite chuckled. "But, alright, fine. Since you went through all this trouble, I'll come up to eat with you. Then you help me scan the machines tomorrow morning."

"You betcha nerdy butt you have a deal! Now c'mon. I don' like ya being cooped up in here for long."

"Alright, alright," Pyrite rubbed his eyes and sighed. "I get it." He looked back at the window, where the yellow, gauzy morning light shadowed several news clippings.

 **SUPERHUMAN FOUND?**

 **MAN WITH FOUR ARMS**

 **SPECTER AT THE CLIFFS**

 **ROCKS FOUND INSIDE BABY**

and finally, " **ARE SENTIENT POLYMORPHIC ROCKS HERE TO GET US?** "

That last one was a print from online website Onyx had shown him as a joke, but it had proven relevant anyway.

Pyrite shook his head clear and glanced at Onyx's genuinely hopeful face, so much like his own. Gem-wise, they were so different. But he knew Onyx - or should he say _Stanley_ , cared a lot about him. And if there was one thing he was certain about since moving to the strange town of Gravity Falls, is that he cared about his brother – the only one off his kind he could really trust right now. And that was that.

"I'll give it a rest," he said softly and followed the other gem up the stairs. The door closed behind them.


	18. Travel

The streets of Gravity Falls were alive with people, at this time of day. They walked languidly, the sun shining high and pleasantly warm above them. The kids were greeted by a few recognisable faces as they drove past, licking ice creams cups and ice cream cones as they treat themselves like children would. It was mostly just Mabel calling out greetings though, accompanied by frantic arm-length gestures. Dipper merely smiled at the people he knew and rocked his shoulders at the people he didn't but made eye contact with anyways.

Steven rode backseat throughout all of this, too busy savoring his ice cup to really pay attention to the casual curiosity he was garnering.

"It's like," he giggled happily, again, licking the bottom of his cup, "Cookie Cat ice cream! It's so~o good! You have any more, Mabes? This is amazing!"

Dipper turned a corner and the momentum nearly sent their heads out the golf cart. "Whoawh. Haha. Sorry, Steves," she snorted, climbing to kneel up on the seat. Mabel slung her arms over the backrest and hit Steven giddily across his arm. Hard.

"Ow! Mabel, what was that for?"

She laughed again, but gentler this time. Her hand flew in front of her mouth and obstructed the view of her braces. "Sorry. Here, you can have mine!"

Steven's eyes lit up. He reached for the half-melted cup, ready to have that sweet, sweet chocolate chip mint, mixed with rocky road and -

Just when his chubby fingers were about to close around the cold container, it was ripped away from him, cruelly. Steven looked up with teary eyes, mouth already tugging to a frown, before he met Mabel's glare and deflated.

"Di-Dipper? Your sister's scaring me."

"Driving, dude."

Steven gulped in terror. He could smell the chocolate from Mabel's last cup of sprinkles. Nothing else. She had just ordered the sprinkles. The girl said quietly, "But first."

Stars suddenly sparkled to life in her eyes, five pronged and shiny. A notepad and pen had suddenly materialized into her hands. "Tell me about this… feline biscuit of yours…"

"We're here!" Dipper whooped.

Mabel jumped around making celebratory noises for the sake of it, while Steven stood there. Just, stood there.

Gah! He knew he shouldn't have taken Mabel's offer. Now he felt all full and sleepy, stuffed with ice cream like a frozen mochi.

"Uhh, guys? This is the gem pad."

Dipper came around and slung an arm over his shoulders, smiling in such a way that Steven was sure was supposed to come off creepy, but just felt awkward and adorably crooked. "Oh c'mon, Steven. I just want to see something, and I think the only way to get it is with your help."

Mabel walked around the gem pad and brushed off the plant life creeping along its side. She nodded knowingly at the runes carved along its clean turquoise surface. "Yup. Definitely can't tamper with this."

"Can't you?" Steven challenged. "You're gems too, right? You should be able to just stand on it..."

The twins stared at him uncomprehendingly, "What?"

"Here, let me show you!"

"Steven, wait!"

He stood on it, smiling as if to communicate how safe it was with his chubby chipmunk cheeks. Mabel and Dipper followed, one curious and excited, the latter curious and wary. But also excited.

They climbed on after him, looking around in interest.

"Now what?" Dipper asked.

Steven slipped his hands to clasp them around his friends' - Dipper on his left, Mabel on his right. He closed his eyes and bit his lower lip in hope.

A bright rose-colored light flashed upwards. A brief otherworldly sound.

They were gone.


End file.
